Heart of the Storm
by thelonelylostgirl
Summary: Cherry Baudelaire is a young woman with aerokinesis, recruited by the government to stop Sebastian Shaw and the Hellfire Club. I do not pretend to know French, nor do I own X-Men or Nikolett Farkas (my friend owns her). I only own Cherry. Banshee/OC and slight Havok/OC
1. Prologue

She thought she was a freak. She had spent her entire life believing that. Everywhere she went, people would point it out.

"_Alien!"_

"_Freak!"_

"_Mutant!"_

And that was it.

Cherry Baudelaire was a mutant. Her parents tried to hide it, but they couldn't keep it from everyone. Growing up in Australia, Cherry was shunned and laughed at. People would throw rocks at her and call her names. Her parents pretended that they loved her regardless, but Cherry was a smart girl, and she could easily tell their true feelings about her mutation through their comments.

"_One day, there'll be a cure."_

"_We love you even if you're like this."_

"_Try to hide it, and no one will know."_

Try to hide it? That wasn't so easy when a gale would swirl around her when she was upset. With a wave of her hand, she could blow a tree bare. Her mutation gave her aerokinesis, and there wasn't exactly anything she could do about it.

She never wanted to be normal. And when she and her parents moved to New York, she hoped that she would find people who accepted her. She was sorely let down of course, at least for two years.

And then, everything changed. While working in a flower shop in Westchester, they found her.

Charles Xavier and Erik Lensherr. They said they could help her. They said that they knew about her mutation, and that they could bring her to a place with people like her, a place where she could learn how to control her powers. And that is where this story begins.

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**Please R&R!**


	2. Chapter 1

Cherry didn't quite know what to expect when she turned the doorknob and heard the door click open. As she opened, though, she knew whatever she was expecting was _not _what she found.

The sight that greeted her was kids. Well, not children, but young people. It seemed like only one person there, a dark skinned man, was above the age of twenty four, and the majority of them looked no older than seventeen.

"Hi! I'm Raven," said a young woman with blonde hair, bouncing over to greet her. "Welcome to Mutant Recruit."

"Umm...hi," Cherry said, feeling mildly uncomfortable.

"Are you British?" a teenage boy with red hair and freckles said from one of the armchairs in the room.

Cherry laughed. It was a common misconception. She walked over to the couches and sat down on one of them, next to a young looking girl with, strangely enough, gray hair and green eyes. "I'm Australian," she said to the boy, who raised his eyebrows. "I'm Cherry Baudelaire."

"Sean Cassidy," said the redhead.

"I'm Nikolett," said the girl sitting next to her. "That's Alex." She gestured to a teenage boy with blonde hair, who nodded in response. "Darwin." The dark skinned man next to Alex. "Angel." A young girl with short dark hair. "And Hank." A tall young man with glasses.

"_Il est agréable de vous rencontrer_."

"_Vous aussi_," the girl called Nikolett said with a smile.

Cherry broke out into a grin. "_Parlez-vous français_?"

"_Oui_!" Nikolett said.

It was then that Cherry realized that the boys called Alex, Sean, and Hank were staring at her funny. Of course. "_Je suis désolé_. My parents are French, so I grew up speaking French with them. Sometimes I forget that not everyone speaks it.

After a good two minutes or so of sitting in silence, Raven decided to break it. "We should think of code names," she said enthusiastically. "We're government agents now, we should have secret code names. I want to be called 'Mystique'!"

"Damn, I wanted to be called Mystique!" Sean laughed, nearly choking on whatever it was he was drinking.

"Well tough, I called it!" Raven all but laughed in his face, before morphing into an identical copy of Sean, causing him to almost tip his chair backwards. "And I am way more mysterious than you," she says, copying his voice perfectly as well. Everyone starts clapping.

"_Magnifique_!" Cherry laughs.

"Darwin, what about you?" Raven asks as she turns back into herself, shaking out her blonde hair.

"Well," Darwin says. "Darwin's already a nickname, and you know, it sort of fits. Adapt to survive and all." He stood up. "Check this out!" He made his way over to the fish tank in the back of the room. Everyone turned to watch as he dunked his head in the water, and almost instantly grew gills.

"Whoa!" Everyone clapped as Darwin pulled his head out of the fish tank.

"Thank you, thank you." Darwin pointed at Sean. "What about you?"

"I'm going to be…Banshee!" he says.

"And why do you want to be named after a wailing spirit?" Hank asks.

"You might want to cover your ears." He stood up and crouched down in front of the coffee table. Everyone hesitantly covered their ears, except Cherry.

"Why…?"

"You'll see," he said with a grin, turning to look at her. "Cover your ears, sweetheart." He winked at her and she covered her ears.

Sean struggled for a second, and then let out a noise that almost sounded like a whistle. Except the entire glass panel in the front of the room shattered. He had a sonic scream. Everyone started laughing and clapping. "Your turn, sweetheart." He pointed at Cherry.

"My mom always called me '_petit zéphyr_', little zephyr. I like that, Zephyr."

"Wind current?" Sean raised an eyebrow.

"God of wind," Nikolett corrected

Cherry raised her eyebrow as well, and twisted her hand. Almost instantly, Sean was blown through the now open window. "Impressed, wailing spirit?"

"I sure am, sweetheart." He laughed, climbing back in the room.

"Aerokinesis?" Raven asked.

"_Oui_!" Cherry turned to Nikolett. "_C'est à votre tour_!"

"I guess I can be...Century?"

"Why?" Alex asked, with a large amount of snark.

"Well, I've lived since the beginning of time." She turned to Cherry. "That's how I know French. I lived there for 80 years and left after the French revolution."

"That's bullshit," Alex said.

"Excuse me?" She stood up and stomped over to where Alex was smugly sitting, and, with a sneer, slapped him in the face.

In a blink, Alex had shrunk down to the size of a toddler. But no, he hadn't just shrunk...he had been turned into a toddler. Alex's lips quivered, and he started to cry. "Why did you hit me?"

"_Mon dieu!_" Cherry cried. Everyone clapped.

"And…" She waved her hand in front of Sean's glass, and it instantly turned to sand.

"Whoa!" More applause.

"Turn me back, meanie!" Little Alex said, sniffling.

She crouched down so she was his height. "Have you learned your lesson?" she asked with a smirk. He nodded. "Have you learned not to be a douchebag?" He nodded again. And she slapped him again.

Eighteen year old Alex was back, rubbing his cheek. "That fucking hurt," he said.

"And does it look like I care?" She sat back down next to Cherry."

"Your turn!" Raven said to Angel.

Angel stood up and took off her jacket, and Sean whistled. "Well, my 'stage name' was Angel. And it kinda fits." The bug wing tattoos on her back came alive, and flitted around a bit.

"You can fly?!" Raven practically shrieked.

"Uh huh. And…" Angel turned to the statue outside, and spit a glowing yellow blob at it. When it made contact, it burned the statue's surface.

"That's awesome!" Applause.

"What's your name?" she asked Hank, putting her jacket back on.

Alex nearly choked on his drink. "How about Bigfoot?" This earned him a glare from Nikolett.

"Well you know what they say about guys with big feet," Raven said. "And, yours look kind of small." She mockingly pouted and Alex turned bright red. Cherry leaned over and high-fived her.

"Alex, what is your gift, what can you do?" Darwin asked, seeing as Alex was the only one left.

"Uh, it's not, uh…I just can't do it." He looked almost afraid. "I can't do it in here."

"Can you do it out there?" Darwin asked.

"Yeah, just do it out there!" Raven chimed.

"Oh come on!" Everyone started chanting "Alex, Alex" over and over until he stood up

"Get down when I tell you," he said as he climbed through the empty panel to outside. Everyone leaned out the panel to look at him. "Get back!" He waved his hand and they went back into the room, only to come back out again after about two seconds. "Get back!" But no one did. Alex huffed in annoyance. "Whatever."

He started to move his torso as if he were trying to keep up a hula hoop. But instead of a hula hoop, he was juggling three glowing red rings of pure energy. He sent them flying, and they chopped the statue right in half, setting it on fire in the process.

"Whoa!" Everyone moved up from their ducked position and clapped.

Alex climbed back into the room. "Ta-da," he said with little enthusiasm.

"So, pick a name for yourself!" Raven was bouncing up and down.

"Walking Disaster?" Hank suggested.

"How about Havok?" Alex said with a smirk, proud that he had come up with that.

"Havok, now that sounds kick ass," Darwin said, patting Alex on the shoulder.

"So, Mystique, Darwin, Banshee," Raven began ticking off names on her fingers. "Zephyr, Century, Angel, and Havok." She turned to Hank. "That leaves you, Hank."

"Uh…" Hank pushed his glasses up his nose. "I'll...think of something later."

"What about Charles and Erik?" Nikolett asked.

"Well, Charles can be...Professor X!" Raven clapped her hands.

"Erik has magnetic powers, right?" Angel asked.

"Then he should be Magneto!" Sean said. Everyone laughed and clapped.

"Angel, show us how you fly!" Cherry exclaimed.

Angel laughed and removed her jacket again, letting her wings come to life. They flittered like a bug's, and soon she was above their heads. "It's just like moving your arm, except they're wings," she said happily. "Cherry-I mean, Zephyr-if you can manipulate air and wind, you can probably fly too!"

"Yeah! Try it!" Sean laughed.

"I bet you can," Nikolett said.

"Okay, let me concentrate." Cherry squinted her eyes shut and twisted her fingers around. And she began to float. "_Mon dieu! Je m'envole_!" she screamed, opening her eyes and seeing the floor below her. Everyone laughed.

Raven turned on the radio in the room and turned it up loud. She started dancing. "Why don't we have some fun while we're stuck in here?"

Angel began to dance in midair, while Cherry just tried to move while in the air, and only succeeded in flipping herself upside down. "Hey, Sean!" Darwin yelled. "Hit me with something!"

Nikolett hit Hank on the back of the head, turning him into a toddler. She then picked him up and started to dance with him, causing Raven to laugh hysterically. Sean picked up a chair and threw it at Darwin, who turned stony as soon as it touched him. Alex then joined in on whacking Darwin with random items around the room.

"Come on, harder!" Darwin said as Alex and Sean hit him with pieces of wood. "Harder!" Everyone was laughing and having so much fun.

"What are you doing?!" a female voice shrieked. Everyone stopped dead and looked outside. Charles, Erik, and Moira were standing there, looking furious. Angel landed gracefully and Cherry fell to the floor with a thud. Alex and Sean dropped their pieces of wood, and Raven looked horrified. Nikolett put Hank down and smacked him again, turning him back to his normal age and height.

"Who destroyed the statue?!" Moira snarled.

"It was Alex," Hank blurted. Alex gave him a betrayed look.

"No, Havok," Raven corrected. "We have to call him Havok, that's his name now. And we were thinking," She pointed at Charles. "You should be Professor X," She pointed at Erik. "And you should be Magneto."

Charles and Moira looked disappointed, while Erik looked impressed. "Exceptional," he said. But that didn't stop him from turning and stalking away, as the eight people in the room's faces fell. Moira expressed her annoyance before following Erik.

Charles looked the most furious of the three as he stared at Raven. "I expect more from you," he scolds, before following the other two adults.

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**Please R&R!**


	3. Chapter 2

**Thank you for the reviews!**

**BloodyAvenger21: Thank you!**

**kanna-chan94: Thats exactly where I got her name from! Those books are amazing. I've always had a hard time making chapters long, I don't know why:(**

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Cherry stuck her finger in the water of the fish tank and swirled it around. They had been relocated to a new room, since Sean had destroyed the window in the other one. Everyone's spirits had been darkened, since their scolding from Moira and Charles, so no one was really doing much, except for the sound of the pinball machine and the occasional groan from Darwin. So Cherry just sat there, swirling her finger around in the water and watching the fish swim around.

"So, fish, huh?" Cherry turned around to see Sean. He pulled up a chair and sat next to her.

She nodded, trying not to laugh. "Yeah. Fish."

"Do you like fish?"

"Not particularly." She laughed. "I'm just bored. Do you like fish?"

"They're okay. That was where Charles and Erik found me, actually. An aquarium." He turned to her. "Where'd they find you?"

"A flower shop I was working at." Her eyes widened. "I never had time to quit." Sean laughed. "_Merde…_"

"Do you like flowers?"

Cherry nodded. "Do you?"

"They're nice in certain amounts. Too many can be exhausting." Cherry laughed. Sean got up and walked back to the couches, sitting in one of the armchairs. He motioned for Cherry to come sit in the other one.

She took her hand out of the fish tank and bounced over to the chair, sitting upside down with her legs where her back should be, her knees bent around the top of the chair, and her head hanging down, almost touching the floor.

"So...what's your favorite color?" Sean asked her.

She laughed. "Is this Twenty Questions?"

He shrugged and laughed too. "Just trying to make friends."

Cherry huffed in amusement. "Red. What's yours?"

"Green. Because I'm Irish." Cherry laughed. "Favorite animal?"

"Bluejay. You?" Sean opened his mouth but she cut him off. "If you say fish, I swear, there will be consequences."

Sean laughed. "Well, I'm sorry, but _fish._" He snickered as she groaned and covered her eyes with her hands.

"Jesus man, you are killing me!" Darwin groaned as the pinball machine made lots of noises.

"Don't beat yourself up, I've had a lot of spare time," Alex says calmly.

Just then, a few CIA agents walked past. "Oh, I didn't know the circus was in town!" one of them said, looking into the room." He looked at Angel. "Hey, come on honey, give us a little _whi whi whi_." He flapped his hands to look like Angel's wings. She rolled her eyes. "No?" Then he turned to Hank. "Come on, let's see the foot." Hank stood up and walked to the window. "There it is, come on Bigfoot." Hank walked over to the curtain control switch. "Hey, hey, come on!" the guy said as Hank closed the curtain on him and stalked back to the couch.

Raven saw that Angel looked upset. "They're just guys being stupid," she said.

"Guys being stupid I can handle," Angel snapped. "Okay? I've handled that my whole life. But I'd rather a bunch of guys stare at me with my clothes off than the way these ones stare at me."

"At us," Raven added after a few moments of silence.

No one said anything. Cherry stood up and sat in the chair normally, bringing her knees up to her chest. "You okay?" Sean asked her.

"I'm fine, just-" Boom. Another boom. Everyone looked around.

"What was that?" Darwin asked. More and more booms. "I don't know, but something doesn't feel right." Everyone stood up and Darwin opened the curtain.

There was something in front of the moon. "What is that?" Darwin asked.

And then a body fell from the sky. Everyone screamed and stepped back from the window. More and more bodies began to fall, and Cherry felt like she was about to cry. A few CIA agents with guns ran outside.

"We're under attack! Do not leave that room!" one of them shouted. Just then, a red man with a tail appeared behind them.

"Behind you! Shoot, shoot!"

The men started shooting, and the red man disappeared. Raven, Angel, and Cherry shrieked as everyone ducked behind the couches and armchairs. The man reappeared and moved one of the agents' arm to make him shoot the glass window, shattering it.

There was a sound of wind whistling, and upon turning to the other window, they saw a giant tornado spinning past Cerebro.

The red man appeared again, and everyone looked back to that scene. This time, he was slashing the agents with blades. The eight mutants huddled together, terrified out of their wits. "Stay here, my ass!" Darwin yelled. "Let's go!" They bolted out the door, following Darwin, running through the hall.

"Get back!" an agent shouted at them.

"We can help!" Darwin yelled, but they were stopped and shoved by more agents. There was fire and shooting as they were shoved back into the room. And the tornado outside had destroyed Cerebro, and the red man was still slashing CIA agents to the ground. Raven started to cry. The tornado sent an agent flying through the still intact window, shattering that one as well. The red man killed the last CIA agent, just as a young man wearing a suit walked into the room from the newly shattered window. And the red man came into the room as well. They were completely trapped.

Shooting. "You want the mutants? They're right through that door!" a voice shouted from the hall. "Just let us normal people go! We're no threat-" there was a sound that sounded like blood splattering, and the door opened.

In stepped a tall, sharply dressed man wearing a strange helmet. The eight of them were plastered to the wall. Cherry grabbed the nearest hand, which happened to be Sean's. He looked at her as if he was trying to be reassuring, but looked just as terrified as her.

"Where's the telepath?" the man asked.

"Not here," the red man responded.

"Too bad. Well, at least I can take this silly thing off." The man removed his helmet. "Good evening," he said. "My name is Sebastian Shaw. And I am not here to hurt you." He walked closer to the eight mutants.

"Freeze!" an agent outside shouted, pointing a gun at the man called Shaw.

"Azazel," Shaw said. The red man disappeared, reappeared outside, slaughtered the man, and then came back. Shaw handed his helmet to the young suited man. "My friends," he said. "There's a revolution coming. When mankind discovers who we are, what we can do. Each of us will face a choice. Be enslaved, or rise up to rule." Sean squeezed Cherry's hand, presumably out of fear. "Choose freely," Shaw said. "But know that if you are not with us, then by definition you are against us. So. You can stay, fight for the people who hate and fear you, or you can join me, and live like kings." He looked at Angel. "And queens," he whispered, holding out his hand.

Which Angel took. And without a word, he led her away. "Angel…" Raven said.

"Are you kiddin' me?" Sean almost whines.

Angel gestured outside. "Come on. We don't belong here." She sounded like she was crying. "And that's nothing to be ashamed of."

"Fuck that," Nikolett spat.

Darwin held out his hand to Angel, who shook her head and followed Shaw outside. "_Mon dieu_…" Cherry muttered, covering her mouth with her free hand.

"We have to do something," Raven says.

Darwin turns to Alex and says something to him. "When I say, let him have a taste of your powers," he says quietly. Alex nods, and to put up an act, shoves Darwin. "Stop," Darwin says to Shaw. "I'm coming with you." He climbs out the empty panel and goes up to them. Angel smiles.

"Good choice," Shaw says. "So, tell me about your mutation."

"Well, I adapt to survive," Darwin quipped. Alex slowly made his way to the center of the room. "So I guess I'm coming with you."

"I like that."

Darwin walks up and stands next to Angel. "Alex!"

"Get down!" Alex shouts.

"Do it!" He then grabs Angel and shields her as Alex lets his energy rings fly.

But then Shaw catches them. "Protecting your fellow mutants?" Alex's ring disappears, absorbed by Shaw. "That's a noble gesture. Feels good." He turns to Darwin, who tries to punch him, but is easily blocked. Shaw grabs his jaw. "Adapt to this," he says, putting a small ball of red energy-Alex's ring-into Darwin's mouth, stalking back to Azazel, and the four of them disappeared.

Darwin just stood there, and Alex watched in horror as he turned metallic, and then stony. He turned to Alex, and seemed to reach for him, before disintegrating entirely. Alex's heartbreak was visible on his face as Raven and Cherry started to cry. Nikolett scoffed at the crying.

Sean put his arm around Cherry and hugged her. "Jesus Christ…" he mumbled.

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**Please R&R!**


	4. Chapter 3

The six remaining mutants sat in silence. Alex had barely said a word since Darwin died. Nikolett was staring at her feet. Raven had her face in her hands. Hank just sat there, occasionally glancing at Raven. Sean had his arm around Cherry, whose head was resting on his shoulder. No one spoke because no one knew what to say.

"Raven!" Charles jogged over to the bench. Raven stood up and hugged him. Then Charles turned to the mutants. "We've made arrangements for you to be taken home immediately."

"We're not going home," Sean said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"What?"

Sean turned to Alex. "He's not going back to prison," he snapped.

"They killed Darwin!" Alex all but shouted.

"Fuck going home," Nikolett said.

"All the more reason for you to leave," Charles replied. "This is over."

Raven stared at him. "Darwin's dead, Charles. And we can't even bury him."

"We only knew him for a few hours, but he was still our friend," Cherry says, shrugging Sean's arm off her shoulders.

The silence that followed was tense. Nikolett seemed to be fuming, Alex was greatly annoyed. Cherry huffed and leaned back against the stone wall. Sean looked down at his feet.

"We can avenge him," Erik states. Everyone turns to look at him.

"Erik, a word please." Charles stomps off, motioning for Erik to follow him, which he did.

"I'm not going back to selling flowers," Cherry hisses. "They killed my friend. And when anyone, _anyone_ hurts my friends, that's when things get ugly."

"I agree," says Sean. "We're not going down without a fight."

Charles looked back at them. "We'll have to train," he says to them. "All of us. Yes?"

"Yeah." Alex nodded in agreement.

"Fuck yes." Nikolett looked almost terrifyingly excited.

"But we can't stay here," Hank said. "Even if they reopen the department, it's not safe. We've got nowhere to go."

Charles almost smiled. "Yes, we do."

* * *

"_La formation commence demain. Je dois aller au lit,_" Cherry says, standing up. She had been in Nikolett's room for about an hour, just having "girl talk."

"_Oui, bonne nuit, Cerise._" Nikolett waved as Cherry exited her bedroom.

As she walked down the hall, all she could think was that this place was amazing. This place that Charles was letting them stay at so they could train. Charles was amazing, truly amazing. She knew that if anyone could help a bunch of wayward kids control sonic screaming, energy rings, aerokinesis, time control, and big feet, then it would be Charles.

As she entered her bedroom and closed the door, she thought about those wayward kids. Nikki, she was definitely cool. Cherry knew that they would be friends. Alex, she knew that he had the capacity to be nice. His douchebag attitude was merely a front. Raven was amazing, lovely in every way. Hank seemed a bit nervous, but nonetheless a good guy.

And Sean…

She knew that Sean would end up being her best friend. This was her thought as she put on her pajamas and began brushing her teeth. When Sean stopped flirting with her, he turned out to be great. He was funny and nice and interesting, and more huggy than a teddy bear. Already she was closer to Sean than any of the other kids.

Someone knocked on her door, which she scrambled to open. Speak of the devil…

"Preoccupied?" Sean asked with a giggle, referring to her toothbrush stuck between her teeth.

"What do you want?" she said around her toothbrush, causing Sean to laugh harder. She groaned. "One minute." She ran to the bathroom and quickly rinsed her mouth before going back to the doorway. "Now what do you want, Freckles?"

"Just checking up on you."

"Why?"

"Because you were a wreck earlier. You weren't talking, you looked brain dead."

"Yeah, I know…" She shook her head. "Sorry. These things just...get to me."

"Well, if I'm going to be your friend, which I plan to be, then get used to me making sure you're alright. Now get some sleep, we've got a big week ahead of us."

"Yeah. You too." Sean turned to leave, and was halfway down the hall before Cherry called his name. He clumsily turned back around. "_Merci_. For caring. No one's ever actually cared about me before."

"Well, again, get used to it. Because we're all gonna have to rely on each other from now on."

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**Please R&R!**


	5. Chapter 4

Training started early the next morning. They were all given a set of gray sweats. "Matches my hair," Nikki had said.

Cherry was suspended in midair, half upside down, half sideways. "Try and get yourself upright before you try and move," Charles told her.

"Okay...I'm trying…" And with no more than a twitch of her forehead, she was dangling in the air, completely upside down. "Too much?" Charles nodded. "C'est des conneries…"

"Profanity will get you nowhere, Cherry. You taught yourself how to control your aerokinesis, but you use it in too large amounts. Try something smaller." Charles pointed to a tree. "Try just blowing off one leaf." Cherry twitched her forehead again, and a small breeze blew off one leaf. "Exactly like that. Now try it on yourself."

With one final forehead twitch, Cherry was upright. She let out a loud laugh. "_Je l'ai fait!_"

Charles grinned. "Perfect, now try and get yourself flat on your stomach." With a smile, Cherry did exactly that. "Now try to go upright again and land on your feet."

And Cherry fell on her face. "_Fais chier…_" she muttered into the grass before flipping herself over and laying on her back. She just layed there for a minute, until someone held out their hand.

"Come on, get up. You're not doing anyone any good down there," Sean said.

Cherry rolled her eyes, but took his hand anyway, letting him help her up. "Maybe I'm not trying to be helpful."

"That's the kind of stuff that'll get you pushed out a window, sweetheart."

"_Ferme ta putain de gueule, _Sean."

"I have absolutely no idea what you just said."

"She told you to shut the fuck up!" Nikki calls from the open window she's leaning out.

"Oh, well that's just not nice."

"Well, it's a good thing you're here, Sean," Charles said. "You're up next."

* * *

With little more than a yelp, Sean had shattered an entire glass panel. Cherry patted him on the shoulder, and Charles laughed. "What you're doing is incredible. You're hitting a pitch with sound waves that have the same resonant frequency as the glass, that's why it shatters. But this," He pointed to his throat. "Is like any other muscle in the body, you can control it."

"Cover your ears," Sean said. Charles pressed his headphones to his ears, while Cherry just stood there, smirking. "Don't make me go over this again, Fruit Salad."

"_Excusez-moi?_"

"Just cover 'em." Cherry angrily did so. And Sean screamed louder than he had been screaming before. Loud enough that it sent him, Charles, and Cherry all flying backwards, landing uncomfortably on their backs.

"Not bad at all," Charles said.

Sean turned his head to look at Cherry, who was flat on her back next to him. "What about you, Fruit Salad? You impressed?"

"Your powers? Oui. Your nicknaming talents? Non."

"Oh come on. It's better than sweetheart."

"It's honestly no better, you _imbecile_."

"_Qu'est-ce que c'était la France comme si vous y étiez?_" Cherry asked Nikki as they jogged around the path surrounding the mansion.

"_C'était magnifique! Espace ouvert, arbres, vous auriez aimé_."

"_En fait, j'ai jamais été en France, croyez-le ou pas_." Cherry said, her face turning the same color as the scarf tied around her head.

Nikki stopped dead, her jaw almost hitting the gravel below. "_Vraiment? Vous devez y aller, c'est incroyable_."

Cherry stopped too. "_Je un jour_."

"Um...baguette."

The girls turned around to see Alex and Sean, Alex staring at Sean as if he were the dumbest thing to ever exist.

"Sorry, it's the only French word that I could think of."

Cherry and Nikki both started laughing, and Sean turned red enough that his freckles weren't visible. "Anyway…" said Alex. "I need to borrow Nikki. We have arm wrestling tactics to discuss."

Nikki rolled her eyes. "Bitch, don't make me slap the age out of you again."

"I just don't like losing, okay?" He turned and walked away, Nikki following him, leaving Cherry with Sean.

"Baguette? Really?"

"I'm hungry!"

"It seems to me that you're always hungry."

"I'm Irish!"

"Since when is that an excuse for being a bottomless pig?" She gave him a look that challenged him to make a comeback.

"I'm not even going to try," he said, knowing exactly what that look meant.

Cherry rolled her eyes and resumed her jogging. Sean quickly caught up with her. "I give it til the end of the week. Those two are gonna hook up by then," he said.

"I'd give it two weeks."

"Ten bucks says you're wrong?"

"You're on."

"We might not be alive in two weeks."

"Good point...I guess." They jogged in silence for a few minutes, when Cherry looked down at the gravel and smiled.

"What?"

"Nothing, just...it's been three days. Three days we've all known each other. And already, you're all the best friends I've ever had."

"I keep thinking the same thing. I don't think any of us really had any friends before Erik and Charles found us. Except for Hank, maybe. And Raven obviously. They're the only ones who can really hide their powers."

"You can hide yours, can't you?"

"Not so easy when every time I see a spider, I shatter a window."

"You're afraid of spiders?" Cherry grinned.

"Not exactly afraid...more like, I dislike them the same way people dislike ghosts." At least he was trying.

"So you're afraid of them?"

"...Maybe."

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**Please R&R!**


	6. Chapter 5

"You two are sure that this will work?" Sean asked nervously as Hank and Charles attached a set of wing-like flaps to his arms.

"Anything is possible," Hank said. "I based the design-"

"Hank, stop talking," Charles interrupted.

"You can do it, Sean. You've just got to scream." Cherry patted him on the shoulder.

Charles and Hank practically had to drag him over to the window, where Raven was sitting. "I've trusted Hank with something far more serious than this. You'll be fine," she says, opening the window.

Sean was whimpering. "Oh come on, _trouillard_." Cherry laughed.

Still whimpering, Sean sat on the windowsill. "Promise me one thing," he whined. "When I die jumping off this window, you've gotta bury me in this." Cherry giggled.

"Pull yourself together, it's only one story," Charles assured.

"I could still break an ankle or something."

"Pussy!" Nikki yelled from the other window, where she, Erik, Raven, and Alex were leaning out.

"Shut up!" Sean yelled back.

Charles rolled his eyes. "Yes, you could. Now remember, scream as hard as you can."

"You need the soundwaves to be supersonic," Hank said. "Catch them at the right angle, and they should carry you."

"They _should _carry me," Sean says with a hollow laugh. "That's reassuring."

Charles patted him on the back. "Good luck."

"_Je crois en toi,_" Cherry said quietly.

"You know, I have no idea what that means."

Cherry rolled her eyes and leaned back inside with Hank and Charles. Sean exhaled loudly and crossed himself, mumbling some prayer, before raising his arms and staring at the bushes below for a second.

"Fucking do it already!" Nikki yelled.

Sean pushed himself off the window, let out a pathetic yelp, and crashed into the bushes. Everyone started laughing hysterically. "You okay?" Charles called down to him. He responded by glaring at him.

"You're such a drama queen," Cherry said.

* * *

Charles and Sean watched as Cherry perfected going up and down in midair at a good speed. "Okay, now you need to try going forward and back," Charles said.

Cherry landed. "Are you sure that's a good idea?"

Charles nodded. "Absolutely. You can do it."

"You said that about Sean jumping out the window, too…" she mumbled.

"Hey, I heard that!"

"You were meant to, _reine de drame_."

Charles rolled his eyes at the two teenagers' banter. "Please, Cherry. Just try."

Cherry nodded and flew up about ten feet. "Don't worry!" Sean yelled up to her. "If I didn't die, then you won't either!"

"_Ferme ta putain de gueule!_"

"What was that?"

"She told you to shut up...in a manner of speaking."

"This again? Really?"

Cherry just ignored him. "Okay, here goes nothing…" And she blew straight into the wall of the mansion, hitting her head and nearly passing out before falling ten feet to the ground.

"Cherry!" Sean yelled. He ran to where she was falling, and caught her, but the impact caused them both to fall.

"It's the thought that counts," Cherry mumbled.

Moira shined a flashlight in Cherry's left eye. "Why are you doing this, exactly?"

"To make sure you're not concussed. Sean said you hit your head." She shined the light in her other eye. "No concussion, just a few cuts and a nasty bump."

"Okay, thanks. I can handle a few cuts and scrapes." Moira nodded and left Cherry's bedroom. Not more than three seconds after Moira had closed the door, someone knocked. "Come in."

"Concussed?" Sean asked.

"Just scraped. And bumped." She poured some disinfectant on a wad of gauze.

"Need some help?"

"_Non_." But the second she pressed the gauze to her forehead, she yelped in pain and dropped it.

Sean laughed. "Stings?"

"_Oui!_"

"Give me the gauze."

"I can do it!"

"No, you clearly cannot. Give me the gauze, sweetheart."

Scornfully, she handed him the gauze and disinfectant. "So, you call me sweetheart when I'm being stupid."

"So you've caught on." Sean laughed as he soaked the gauze with disinfectant. "Try not to cause a wind storm, I just got my hair done."

Cherry laughed, but her laughter was cut off by hissing in pain at the sting of the disinfectant. "So you have two nicknames for me, but I only have one for you. This isn't exactly fair."

"You call me Freckles."

"I do, but you call me sweetheart and Fruit Salad. I need to come up with another one for you."

Sean finished cleaning her cuts. "Are there any bandages in that thing?" He nodded towards the first aid kit.

"Do I need bandages?"

"Yes. Give me the bandages."

With a huff, she handed him the roll of bandages, which he started to wrap around her head. "How about Ginger?"

"Oh god, please no."

Cherry laughed. "Okay...I could just call you _imbecile_."

"Even I know that means idiot."

"Good. Ow!" she yelped as Sean purposefully pulled the bandages too tight. "_Batard._"

"I'm gonna have to get a French to English dictionary because I have no idea what you're saying half the time."

"I try my best."

Sean loosed the bandages and taped them. "I think you're good to go. Be careful next time you try to fly, okay?"

Cherry nodded. "You too."

* * *

**Please R&R!**


	7. Chapter 6

"And you truly believe I'll fly this time?" Sean asked, nervously fidgeting.

Charles nodded. "I have complete faith in you."

"You can do it, Freckles." Cherry tried to give him a reassuring smile, but simply laughed at his terrified expression.

Sean exhaled loudly. "I trust you," he said to Charles.

"I'm touched."

"I don't trust him." He pointed at Hank, who looked offended. Cherry giggled.

"Say nothing," Charles said to Hank.

Sean was breathing too loudly. "I'm gonna die!" he yelled.

"It's alright," Charles reassured. "We're not going to make you do anything you don't feel comfortable-"

"Here, let me help." And with that, Erik shoved Sean off the satellite.

"Sean!" Cherry screamed. Sean was screaming as he fell, but not hard enough. "Scream, you _imbecile, _scream!"

And he did. And he flew. And Cherry didn't think she had ever seen a person look happier.

"Your turn," Erik said.

"_Excusez-moi?_" And Erik shoved her off the satellite too.

Cherry yelled multiple profanities in French before Sean grabbed her arm, carrying her along with him. "Now when I let go of you, you're going to fly," he said.

"How do you know that?'

"Because I believe in you." Cherry didn't say anything, just nodded. "On the count of three, okay? One…"

"Two…"

"Three!" they shouted together as he let go of her. As she fell, she closed her eyes and simply thought _fly_.

And she did. She didn't feel the wind carrying her, she was just _flying_. With a huge smile, she flew up next to Sean.

"You're doing it!" he cried.

"So are you!"

"I would totally hug you right now, but I kinda can't!"

"Just hug me when we land!"

Minutes later, the two landed down near Alex and Nikki. "Good going, man," Alex said to Sean. "You too, Cherry."

"_Magnifique!_" Nikki hugged Cherry. Then Cherry turned to Sean.

"We fucking did it!" Sean practically shrieked, hugging her and spinning her around.

"We did!"

"That was fucking awesome! I never thought I'd be able to fly!"

"The wind wasn't even carrying me! I was just...flying!"

"Marvelous, you two!" Charles said, clapping. "Simply amazing!"

"Way to go, guys," Hank said.

Cherry and Sean looked back at each other, and started to laugh like maniacs, so amazed that they were still alive. And Cherry had to try very, very hard to stop herself from kissing him.

* * *

**Please R&R!**


End file.
